


Partners in Training

by kristsune



Series: Make Love Not Death Stars [2]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Dream Sequences, M/M, bed sharing, both of them are way too competitive, kallus loves his muttonchops of mayhem, warning for excessive cuddling, you can pry them from his cold dead ... face
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 02:06:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6733612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristsune/pseuds/kristsune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kallus and Zeb get used to each other over the next few months. It goes about as well as expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Partners in Training

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bunch of vignettes of these two over the course of a couple months after the end of The Pursuit.   
> Huge shout out to my best beta Lemon, who has patience of a saint. Also really great with titles.  
> Belated thanks to my husband who helped me find the make and model of Kallus' ship and the perfect name for it.   
> Please feel free to stop by and say hi on [tumblr!](http://kristsune.tumblr.com/)

Kallus and Zeb had set up a good rhythm after that first kill. They worked well together. They were comfortable with both silence and conversation, though they tended to stay away from the more sensitive subjects, and it’s a close call as to who can out sass the other. 

Zeb was initially sleeping in his own bunk, but after a week of nightmares and zero sleep Kallus makes an executive decision. 

 

Zeb was wandering The Pursuit again. Kallus could hear him through the walls. Seventh rotation in a row and the nightmares are not going away. Kallus doesn’t think Zeb has had a good night’s sleep since the younglings had taken over his bunk. And that is it. That is all the convincing Kallus needs. 

He stormed up and out of his bunk. He found Zeb in the common room cleaning his bo-rifle, again. Kallus was belatedly relieved that he was still wearing his sleep shorts and a tank top after Zeb looked up at him. Hopefully Zeb doesn’t notice how red his ears had gotten.

Kallus decided to bluster his way through, “You. Bed. Now.” He pointed at Zeb then towards his own bunk. Zeb just gave him his patented blank look. “We both know you are not getting any sleep due to your nightmares,” Zeb’s left ear flicks, “so you are going to sleep in my bunk with me. I don’t care if you like it or not. You not sleeping is a major hazard for us. You could get one or both of us killed from sleep deprived poor decisions. So, I repeat. Get into bed. Now.”

Zeb looked like he was going to argue, his ears were back and he had that defiant look on his face. So Kallus just raised his eyebrows and pointed again. 

Zeb rolled his eyes and his ears wobbled, “Karabast.” He muttered under his breath. “Fine.” He shed the top half of his jumpsuit and tossed it into his own bunk before proceeding to Kallus’. Kallus meanwhile had to try not to choke on his own spit. He succeeded, but only barely. He took a deep breath and followed Zeb in. 

Zeb was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for him, “After you, dear.” Zeb motions to the inside of the bed, “Wouldn’t want you falling off now would we.”

“Oh shut it.” Kallus mutters as he gets under the covers.

 

This became part of their routine. Zeb fights Kallus less and less every night, and if they end up closer in the morning than when they went to sleep, neither of them say anything about it. Kallus doesn’t say how much he misses Zeb’s warmth when he gets up and how nice it is to finally not feel so alone. And Zeb doesn’t say how comforting it is to have someone sleeping next to him, keeping the nightmares at bay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the inevitable downtime that they had, they started to spar. It started off innocently enough, keeping in shape, keeping sharp. Unfortunately, things escalated quickly due to them both being competitive. After the first broken table, they decided to keep the sparring planetside where they would have more room to work with. After the second minor concussion, they decided to get a med droid as a precaution. They also figured stocking up on painkillers and bacta bandages was probably a good idea.

 

Kallus groaned while perched on the table in The Pursuit’s small med center holding an ice pack to the back of his head.

“Did you really need to throw me that hard?” 

Zeb managed a look that is both sheepish and offended, his ears going down and back, “Hard? I barely tossed ya!”

Kallus winced when he looked up in complete amazement, “Barely?! Really, well good to know that ‘barely tossing’ me into a tree will give me a concussion.” 

“I put some extra muscle into it! I thought you were heavier!”

“Heavy?! Really?! Is that how you are going to go with this?”

“You humans are so hard to gauge!”

“What does that even mean?! Who are you throwing everywhere?” Zeb opened his mouth and Kallus put up his hand first. “Know what? No. Don’t even answer that. I really don’t want to know.” 

Kallus put his head into his hand and sighed, “Just grab me some painkillers would you?”

He heard Zeb shuffle things around and brought his head slowly up when he got close. Zeb proffered the pills in one hand and the other was rubbing the back of his neck. His ears were down, “I’m sorry your skull couldn’t handle the impact of a tree. I’ll try and toss you a bit gentler next time.”

Kallus huffed a laugh and swallowed the pills, “Thanks Zeb, appreciated.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most of their time spent planetside was looking for intel. They spent a lot of time in seedy cantinas, looking for people willing to trade information. Kallus also occasionally brought out his formal wear and sneak into parties featuring Empire officials to gather intel that way. Though this became more difficult rather quickly because Kallus’ muttonchops were quite recognizable and he outright refused to shave them when Zeb brought it up. 

“No.”

 

“What do you mean ‘no’? Just shave them off and you can get into that fancy get up and get us that intel on that Captain who ordered the deaths of hundreds of sentients. I know you want him dead as bad as I do.” Zeb practically yells with the most incredulous face he can make. 

“I said, no.” Kallus face was about as closed off as Zeb had ever seen it.

“Come on, if you want to get that sleemo that destroyed that med center just because he could, we need this intel.” 

“We’ll find another way, I am not shaving them off.” Kallus finished with the slightest crack in his voice.

Zeb noticed and sighed, “Fine, just. Just tell me why.”

Kallus looked down and started talking, barely above a whisper, “Back at the Academy we weren’t allowed any individuality at all. No personal belongings, nothing different, nothing out of order. Just Academy issued clothes, boots even toiletries. We weren’t allowed anything at all. I showed a lot of ‘promise’ early on, and I quickly rose above all my peers. I was in a league all on my own, but still below all the officers. No one to talk with. The first thing I did, when I was allowed to be myself, was grow these,” Kallus gestured vaguely to his face. 

“They made me feel unique, my own person, not just some cog in a machine. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, I was human again.” Kallus sighed, and finally looked up with a mixture of pain and defiance in his eyes, “So that is why I will not shave them off.” 

Zeb’s left ear flicked, “Alright Kal, we’ll find another way.” He was unsure as to what he could do to comfort the man so he did the only thing he could think of which was lay a big hand on Kallus’ shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. 

“We’ll figure it out together.” Zeb figured it at least kind of worked because Kallus gave him a ghost of a smile and put his hand on top of Zeb’s. 

They did end up getting the information they needed from the party. It just involved Kallus dressed as a server, and more distractions in the form of small explosions. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So they spent their months together like this, fighting (both themselves and the Empire), preparing, attacking, recovering, and sometimes even dreaming.

Kallus is running, he’s in an imperial cruiser, and he is running for his life. The hallway is never ending. There are no turns, no lefts no rights, just running. Zeb is there with him. They can’t find a way out. There aren’t even any doorways. They need to get out, they will be trapped here forever. Kallus can’t go back, he won’t. They can’t have him, and they definitely can’t have Zeb. He knows all too well what the Empire does with captured Lasat. It is not good.

They keep running. Every time Kallus thinks there is a turn up ahead, it disappears. He’s having a hard time breathing. Will this ever end? Zeb pulls his shoulder back, tries to stop him. 

Kallus pulls free, “No Zeb, we have to keep going!” he yells. His eyes are starting to sting. Where is the hangar bay? Where is their ship?

Zeb pulls on his arm again, harder. Kallus turns and Zeb looks so calm and sure, like there is no reason to be terrified of being stuck in these corridors forever. “It’s okay Kallus, we’ll find a way.”

Kallus’ eyes flew open. He hated that kriffing dream. Those never ending identical corridors. That ending was new though. He’d never gotten out of it so quickly. He was usually running for what seemed to be hours, waking up sweating and muscles aching like he actually ran all that way. 

He looked over at Zeb sleeping on his back next to him. He looked so strong and solid, breathing steadily. Kallus was suddenly overcome with gratitude for the giant fuzzy sentient. He couldn’t define it, even to himself, as to what it meant. But he took the opportunity of Zeb soundly sleeping to curl up just a bit closer and take comfort from that heat and solidity. 

\----

Zeb is on Lasan. He looks around, amazed. It’s before the Empire came and destroyed it all. He is walking around some of the Royal Grounds and realizes Kallus is next to him. 

“Hey Kallus, what are you doing here?” Zeb asks, genuinely curious.

Kallus stops, looks up at Zeb and answers earnestly, “I want to be. I wanted to see what Lasan was like before it was destroyed. It sounded so lovely. And, knowing you came from here, I wanted to see what it was really like.” 

Zeb just smiles widely and is astonished by how happy that makes him. How glad he is here with Kallus, able to show him where he came from. How beautiful his home used to be. They walk around for what seems to be hours, Zeb showing off everything he used to love. Where he used to live, the tree he used to sit under when he wanted to relax, his favorite place to get the best pastries on the planet. They are alone but they are together. It doesn’t feel strange. 

Zeb woke up naturally and was astonished with how at peace he felt. He looked down at Kallus curled up next to him. He looked a bit cold. He never seemed to be able to keep warm. Zeb put his arm around him and pulled him a bit closer. Kallus reflexively brought his arm around Zeb’s chest and snuggled in. It just made Zeb smile. He closed his eyes and fell back asleep more relaxed than he had been in a long time.


End file.
